Who has made Better Contributions to Humanity: Jewish Israel or all the Muslim Nations?

John R. Houk

© October 7, 2013

Have any of you looked at a map that has a speck of nation called Israel surrounding by a sea of Jew-hating Muslims?

The green nations are Islamic. If you get a magnifying glass you can see Israel represented with a speck of red. Do you know that Muslims believe Jews stole this speck of land and gave the Muslim inhabitants the boot to make way for a modern Israel on May 15, 2013?

Of course from a Biblical view modern Israel only has a fraction of the land that God Promised to the Hebrew Tribes coming out of Egypt. The land was promised to the descendants of Abraham through a promised son from Abe’s wife Sarah.  Abraham died never possessing the Land Promised by God. Abraham’s son of promise Isaac died never receiving the Land Promised to Abraham. Isaac’s son Jacob (renamed Israel) died never receiving the Land Promised to Abraham by God Almighty. Jacob had twelve sons of whom the Twelve Tribes of Israel are named. Jacob’s favorite son (probably by Divine choice) was Joseph the next to the youngest and the oldest son from his wife Rachel. Joseph and his eleven brothers did not possess the Land Promised by God Almighty.

Divine intervention led Joseph betrayed by his brothers to be second in power in Egypt to be only beneath Pharaoh in Egypt’s political hierarchy. Forgiveness and Mercy proceeded from betrayed Joseph to his betraying brothers and Jacob’s immediate family lived their days in peace in Egypt thanks to the God’s favor toward Joseph. Jacob’s family multiplied and became the Hebrew tribes, BUT with Joseph’s passing future Pharaoh’s did not have the same favor for the Hebrews. Pharaoh’s enslaved the multiplying Hebrews and oppressed them into rough manual labor. It is a good guess as Hollywood movies suggest the Hebrews were involved as the laborers of Egyptian building projects. Slavery in Egypt was brutal, hard and oppressive.

The Bible records that the sons and daughters of the Hebrews reproduced rapidly and to the point that the Egyptian ruling elite became alarmed the Hebrews would number more than the Egyptians. One Pharaoh’s solution was to murder the male babies of the Hebrews to reduce the Hebrew slave population. (Hmm … I just had a thought. Could this have been the first instance ethnic cleansing genocide the Jews faced?) One of those babies scheduled for birth murder was the youngest child of Amram and Jochebed from tribe named after Jacob’s son Levy (Levite Tribe). Jochebed decided to save her baby son Moses from the wrathful edict of Pharaoh. She placed Moses in a floating reed basket and launched him down the Nile River and told her daughter Miriam to follow along.

The reed basket floated to an area where a daughter of Pharaoh discovered Moses. Pharaoh’s daughter decided to raise the Hebrew baby secretly as an Egyptian. The Bible is unclear to when Moses realized he was the son of Hebrew slaves; however my guess is his knowledge was from earliest childhood. Moses needed a wet nurse as a baby and Miriam who had followed the basket suggested her mother Jochebed be Moses’ wet-nurse. Jochebed undoubtedly had an intimate relationship with her secret son and Moses knew Jochebed as his true mother.

The Bible also suggests that Moses was aware he had a destiny with his Hebrew brothers and sisters in a favorable capacity at a relatively young aged:

¹¹ Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. ¹² So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?”

¹⁴ Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well. (Exodus 2: 11-15 NKJV)

²³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶ esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in^[a] Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

²⁷ By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

²⁹ By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. (Hebrews 11: 23-29 NKJV)

During 40 years of God testing the Hebrews Moses was only allowed to see the Land Promised by God Almighty to the descendants of Abraham. Joshua led the Hebrews to the Promised Land and possessed from a people that had become so unrighteous in their lifestyle they were unredeemable and worthy of death. Thus the Canaanites were defeated, killed or expelled. The mandate from God was to kill the abominators but Joshua failed to follow through and the Hebrews paid a price for that decision with Canaanites, Midianites, Amorites and so forth hanging around to tempt the Hebrews with forbidden sins which resulted in an ebb and flow of the control of their Promised Land.

Ultimately the tribes of the Hebrews decided they wanted a King rather than a Judge operating as a go between for the Hebrew people and God Almighty. This displeased God and Samuel became the last Judge and Saul was anointed the first king of the Land called after Jacob’s God-given name Israel. Saul was given directions Divine instructions in the conquest of another abominable people. Saul failed because he allowed women and children to live and spoils to be divided among the Israeli troops. God’s displeasure with Saul led to David the son of Jesse from the Tribe of Judah to become King.

5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Indeed we are your bone and your flesh. ² Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the Lord said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel.’” ³ Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. ⁵ In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. (2 Samuel 5: 1-5 NKJV)

God Promised David that a descendant of the House of David will always sit on the throne of Israel.

⁷ Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”’ ⁸ Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. ⁹ And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth.

 ¹⁰ Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, ¹¹ since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.^[a]

¹² “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵ But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.^[b] Your throne shall be established forever.”’”

¹⁷ According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. (2 Samuel 7: 7-12 NKJV)

David had the promise of a perpetual heir to rule Israel, but as you can read there was and is a catch. “If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” Solomon messed up later in his reign and many other direct descendants of David messed up as well. God kept his promise not to remove a descendant of David from the throne, but iniquity ended up having the northern 10 tribes deported by Assyria and about a 100 years later the last two tribes called Judah were deported by Babylon. It is from the tribe of Judah that the present day Hebrew people are called Jews. Today all Hebrews are referred to as Jews even if they are not from the Tribe of Judah.

When Babylon was conquered by the Persians, their King allowed the Jews in his realm to go back to their homeland. (Side Bar: Present day Iran is the Persia of old. I am betting the Ayatollahs would not admit that Iranian-Persians not only allowed the Jews to go back home but helped them rebuild Jerusalem and the new Temple named after a descendant of David; i.e. Zerubbabel.

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

²³ Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed [Blog Editor: This is actually a genealogy through Mary the mother of Jesus. Joseph’s  genealogy - Matthew 1:1-16]) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, ²⁴ the son of Matthat,^[a] the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, ²⁵ the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, ²⁷ the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, ²⁹ the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, ³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, ³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵ the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶ the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷ the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸ the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Bold & Underline Emphasis Mine – Luke 3: 23-38 NKJV)

The point being that even from a Christian perspective the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews! I have to admit I am totally unaware of the Jewish perspective on the throne of David and the Messiah being the King and descendant of David son of Jesse. I know the Jews are left with a bad taste in their mouth when a Christian tells them the Messiah is Jesus. History tells us that Christian dominated Europe persecuted Jews as Christ-killers and often gave them the choice of converting to Christianity, leave or die.

In Islam such choices are encoded in the Quran, Hadith and Sira. This is not the case in the Holy Bible/New Testament. Christian political and clergy leaders engaged in a bloody campaign against Jew completely contrary to how Jesus taught on how to share the Good News of Salvation.

10 ¹ After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also,^[a] and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. ² Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. ³ Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. ⁴ Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. ⁵ But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. ⁷ And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. ⁸ Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. ⁹ And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us^[b] we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ (Luke 10: 1-11 NKJV)

¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they^[a] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16: 16-18 NKJV)

The Epistles do say God uses the governing authority (i.e. even if they are unbelieving heathen) to brandish the sword against evil doers. The context though is not in defining unbelievers as evil and physical punish is do that unbelief; however the context is toward those who break the Ten Commands. The sword is used for maintaining the social order and for protecting citizens from invaders.

Submit to Government

13 ¹ Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. ⁴ For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ⁵ Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. ⁷ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Love Your Neighbor

⁸ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”^[a] “You shall not covet,”^[b] and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[c] 10} Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Put on Christ

¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. (Romans Chapter 13 NKJV)

Christian rulers using the Inquisition to persecute Jews in the same brutal manner as the Muslim holy writings to tell them to do is something we as Christians should ask for forgiveness and mercy to the Jews.

I understand the distrust of Jews toward Christians, especially Evangelical Christians that actively make it their mission to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to unbelieving Jews. Nevertheless, I stand with the Jews that desire to maintain their Homeland. The return of Jews to Israel is a Christian sign that Jesus’ return is closer than it has ever been. When Christ comes to reclaim His own, I believe the Jews who have not believed that Jesus is their Messiah as much as He is the Messiah to Believing Christians. Like the Apostle Paul often stated in his Epistles the Promises of God are to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles (See Also HERE).

It is remarkably uncivilized that a sea of Muslims cannot make peace with the idea of a Jewish State that is a mere speck on a Muslim map. The Muslim battle cry is for the Arabs that call themselves Palestinians should have their own sovereign nation. The problem Jordan was created as a location for Muslims to congregate and the Jews were promised a national homeland by the world powers of the day. That mandate became the British Mandate for Palestine. Somewhere along a historical line the British decided it was more in the UK national interests to be supportive Arab-Muslim sovereign nations than honoring a sovereign Jewish State. So first off the British carved out of the British Mandate for Palestine a Hashemite Kingdom called Transjordan. AND THEN the British desired to further whittle down their promise to Jews by moving toward further dividing their Mandate between Jews and Arab-Muslims. By the 1940s it was quite known that some of the world’s largest deposits of crude oil was in the Muslim Middle East. I believe it was only because Jews managed to gain a toe-hold in Palestine combined with the Nazi Holocaust that the British did not overtly give Arab sovereignty to all of the British Mandate for Palestine.

The British handled their geopolitical dilemma by indicating they were not going to deal with Jewish-Muslim hostility and were unilaterally going to pull out of the Mandate originally given to manage after WWI. The Jews in Israel correctly discerned that a British exit meant a Jihad to exterminate the Jews from Palestine Mandate. Thus cultivating self-protection because of British negligence led to underground Jewish paramilitary organizations to become an army under the self-proclaimed independence of the nation of Israel on May 15, 1948.

Arab-Muslim nations already given independence from European powers proclaimed they would invade this new independent nation of Israel rather than accept it. The invading Muslim armies warned the Arabs it might be safer to flee to a protected zone until the overwhelming odds of 5 or 6 invading Muslim armies butchered Jew into nonexistence thus ending the Jewish dream of returning to their Holy Homeland. Indeed the British overtly provided British Officers including a British Commander to lead Transjordan’s Arab Legion against Israel.

And this is when a Divine miracle occurred. A bunch of Jews fighting to live in a homeland in which a government does not persecute them managed to pull together enough in a united miraculous front that defeated the Arab armies EXCEPT the British led Arab Legion that went on to conquer Jewish Judea-Samaria and to annex the Eastern half of Old Jerusalem which contained a millennial aged Jewish Quarter on behalf of Transjordan. As Muslims desecrated ancient Jewish holy spots Transjordan changed its name to Jordan after formerly annexing Judea-Samaria and East Jerusalem as part of the Hashemite Kingdom. I am still mystified why the British allowed the Jewish Quarter to be dismantled with Jewish gravestones used in street building and the construction of latrines for the Arab Legion.

In 1948 Israel’s borders secured by truces and not treaties became an iffy existence. Muslim nations tried time and time again to destroy Israel. Israel won each time. BUT in 1967 another God-moment occurred.

Forty-five years ago, on June 5, 1967, the world was writing Israel's obituary.  The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, along with military contingents from many other Arab and Muslim regimes, were all poised at tiny Israel's vulnerable borders, ready to annihilate the Jewish state.  The odds appeared immensely stacked against Israel, and the likelihood of any outside military support, even from the United States, seemed remote.  Israel stood alone.

The Arab Muslim street was shrieking bloodcurdling threats of mass extermination for all Israelis, young and old, and the Arab leaders were falling over themselves to see who could utter the most hideous promise of massacre and slaughter.  The Muslim Arab cry Itbah Al-Yahud, an Arabic phrase meaning "Slaughter the Jews," was spewing from every Arab regime's controlled radio and television station.

…

Beginning in late May and early June 1967, Nasser sent 80,000 Egyptian troops and 900 tanks across the Sinai Desert to attack Israel, with air cover provided by 400 jet aircraft.  Soviet-made Syrian guns and artillery on the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights were already pounding Israeli farmers and villagers in the valley below and firing on Israeli fishermen in the Sea of Galilee.

At the same time, indiscriminate shelling of Jerusalem by the Arab Legion from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank had killed scores of Israeli civilians and wounded 1,000 despite pleas from Israel to Jordan to stay out of the war.  Meanwhile, disgracefully succumbing to Nasser's demands, the United Nation's buffer force in Sinai that had been in place since the earlier 1956 One Hundred Hours' War hastily left, even as Israel pleaded with Secretary General U Thant to honor the U.N. mandate to keep the peace.

Egypt was also blockading Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran, leading to the Red Sea, and Israeli ships were also prohibited from using the Suez Canal.  This was strangling Israel's economy.  Faced with all this, Israel struck back -- and won a stunning victory.

In a surprise move, the Israeli Air Force attacked while the Egyptian pilots were having breakfast and destroyed all 400 Egyptian planes on the ground.  The Israeli armored and infantry units, though outnumbered, rolled up the huge Egyptian army, forcing it back to the Suez Canal; drove the Syrian forces from the Golan Heights; and reunited divided Jerusalem, liberating all the Jewish holy places in the Old City, which the Jordanians had desecrated and destroyed.  The Jordanians had taken the ancient Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives and used them as latrines for the Arab Legion.  At the same time, some 58 synagogues, some dating back centuries, had been blown up, their ruins used as stables for donkeys.

Many people believe that the astonishing Israeli victory was a miracle.  I remember listening in England to Michael Elkins, the BBC reporter in Israel at the time, who broke the startling news of the Israeli victories on all three fronts; the Egyptian, the Syrian, and the Jordanian.  But equally, many people also thought he was exaggerating Israel's total defeat of her enemies, preferring almost to the end of the Six-Day War to continue believing the strident but false Arab boastings that Israel was being destroyed.

… (READ ENTIRETY - The Six-Day War: Israel's Miraculous Victory; By Victor Sharpe; American Thinker; 6/10/12)

I have to be honest I began this post as a lead-up to a tech article boasting on Israel becoming the next Silicon Valley in the Computer age. Evidently already Israel scientists have made huge contributions in the computer world to corporations like Microsoft, Intel, Apple and other such big dogs in the world of computers.

The point I was going to make is that little barely visible red mark on a map called Israel has made more contributions in science and technology than all the Muslim nations combined. Think on that the next time you hear some sap whine about those poor Palestinians because they don’t have a sovereign nation that will only have one reason for existing – Destroy Israel.

JRH 10/7/13

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Christians Must Honor Jews

John R. Houk

© November 27, 2012

Christians of history past, particularly Roman Catholics, Lutheran Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians (More modern Eastern Orthodox antisemitism), emerged as Jew-haters by calling the Jews Christ-killers. Were the Jews of pre-Resurrection Jesus the murderers of Jesus the Christ (the Anointed One and His Anointing). The accusation is a particularly heinous indictment since Jesus came FIRST as the Savior of the Jews and then as the Savior of the World, i.e. the Gentiles (non-Jews).

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,^[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”^[b] (Romans 1: 16-17 NKJV)

Take note that Salvation is to the Jew FIRST and also the Greek (i.e. Gentiles). Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul included this in the Epistle to the Romans AFTER Jesus was nailed to the Cross, died and arose bodily from the grave.

Did the Jews kill their own Messiah? NO! Rather the Greek oriented Sadducees and tradition minded Pharisees in the Temple authority known as the Sanhedrin feared that Jesus’ popularity would remove their political influence bequeathed by Roman hegemony over the Jewish faithful. Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate called for Jesus’ Crucifixion only in the fear the Sanhedrin would notify Roman Caesar Tiberius that a rebellious Jew called Jesus bar Joseph was set free.

In my mind the responsibility for Jesus’ death on the Cross lay at the feet of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman government as administered by Pontius Pilate. If Christians blame Jews as Christ-killers because of the actions of the Sanhedrin, then Christ-killer blame must be shared with the Roman government. At the time the Roman government was Italian-Romans. Do we call all Italians Christ-killers? And think of this: the Roman Catholic Church is a vestige of the Latin speaking Roman Empirical government so do we call all current Catholics Christ-killers? Or think of this: the official liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church until the 1960s was spoken in ancient Latin. Do we call all the people that speak a derivative of Romantic languages (e.g. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and so on) Christ-killers? I believe you get the idea.  

The Jews have problems with Christians, especially the proselytizing Christians even though most of those proselytizers are lovers of the Jews. The problem Jews have with Christians is their/our past Jew-hating persecution including the blood libel of Christ-killer. Yes friends I am talking of the kind of persecution that led to pogroms, genocide and/or death march expulsions.

Orthodox Judaism has a problem with the theology that their Messiah according to Christians is the Son of God making a human co-equal with God Almighty. Indeed, once religious Jews picked up on the preaching of Jesus that His Father is God and Jesus did co-equalize Himself with God by the Father and the Son is One. The pre-Resurrection Lord Jesus mystically walked away from many stoning opportunities from the Jewish faithful.

Christians must abandon the notion of Jewish Christ-killers and Jew-hatred. Christians must embrace the notion the Jews are the Chosen People with the Promise of specific Land to Abraham and the Abrahamic descendants.

Part of the Abrahamic Covenant is the Child of Promise. Sarah was privy to the promise of a great nation. With Abraham and Sarah being a bit aged to have children, Sarah thought she’d God a bit of help and told Abraham to make a baby with her slave Hagar. What a surprise: Abraham thought for about a half a second and said, “Okayyyy”. The progeny of that escapade with slave girl Hagar was Ishmael which everyone presumed was Abraham’s heir apparent to the Promise.

Sarah’s plan was not God’s plan. God promised aged Sarah a child and it happened. The Child of Promise then was Isaac and the child of the slave was Ishmael. Thus Ishmael was not the heir to the Promise but rather Isaac.

The Bible that both Jews and Christians call Holy shows the Promise of Abraham in having descendants as numerous as the stars and the Promise of specific geographical Land. The Jews call this portion of the Bible the Torah and the Tanakh. The Christians call the portion of the Bible with Abrahamic Covenant the Old Testament and the first five books of the OT the Pentateuch. The essence of the differences in interpretation of the Old Testament is the view to who the Messiah will be (Jews) or is (Christians). Of course the theology chasm has widened over years as the Gentiles began to dominate Christianity over the Jews. Regardless of that growing Jewish-Christian theology chasm it is incumbent upon Christians to honor in the plan of Salvation knowing that part of that plan is the Jews FIRST and then the Gentiles.

I found a John Piper article posted at Desiring God that highlights the reasons of why to embrace “the Jews First” and the theology that is equal between Jews and Gentiles.  I am just listing the points in the article I do encourage you to read the whole thing. The title is “To the Jew First, and Also to the Greek”.

First, then, how are the Jews "first"?

1. The Jews have a priority over Gentiles as the chosen people of God

2. The Jews have a priority over Gentiles as the guardians of God's special revelation, the Old Testament Scriptures

3. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that the Messiah himself, Jesus Christ, came first as a Jew to the Jews

4. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that salvation is from the Jews

5. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in that Paul evangelized Jews first when he brought the gospel to a new place

6. The Jews have a priority over the Gentiles in final judgment and final blessing.

In What Ways Do the Jews Not Have Priority?

1. The Jews do not have priority in righteousness or merit

2. The Jews do not have priority in how they are saved

3. The Jews do not have priority in participation in God's covenant blessings

This is what got me started on Christians must be supportive of Jews even if Jews mistrust Christians. A better writer than I (Danny Jeffrey) found a news article on Israel Nation News in which a moronic Catholic Cardinal calls Israel a bunch of baby-killers in the recent bout with Islamic terrorists Hamas. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi condemns Israel yet does not mention that Hamas shot missiles into Israeli civilian centers targeting among other location schools. Cardinal Ravasi is supporting Jew-hating Muslims that deny the Divinity of Christ and has the goal of killing every Jew in Israel because Islam calls the Bible corrupt and the Promises given to Abraham that was to flow through the child of Promise – i.e. Isaac – a lie. The Quran rewrites the Old Testament and the New Testament to proclaim the Abrahamic Covenant flows from the child of the slave – Ishmael. AND that Jesus is NOT the Son of God but rather a mere man that was a great Prophet BUT second to the butchering self-proclaimed prophet Mohammed.

This Cardinal Ravasi is outrageous and should be removed from his high Papal position by Pope Benedict XVI.

JRH 7/27/12

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The Vatican on Gaza: Israel is a Baby-Killer”

Not a word was heard from the Vatican all the years Sderot babies were in mortal danger. They began noticing the violence last week.

By Giulio Meotti, Italy

First Publish: 11/21/2012, 11:45 PM

Arutz Sheva 7 – Israel National News

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Vatican Council for Culture, commenting on the war between Israel and Hamas, delivered a severe attack on the Jewish people: “I think of the ‘massacre of the innocents’. Children are dying in Gaza, their mothers’ shouts is a perennial cry, a universal cry”.

The Catholic Church high official equated Israel’s operation in Gaza against terror groups with the New Testament story of Herod’s slaughter of Jewish babies in his effort to kill Jesus.

Ravasi, who is one of the most popular Catholic cardinals and the director of the Church’s policy on culture, called Israelis baby-killers in a shameless form of anti-Semitism which subtly accuses the Jewish State of trying to murder the new Jesus, symbolized by the Palestinian people.

The Vatican official’s modern blood libel against Israel was delivered during the presentation of Pope Benedict’s new book about the life of Jesus. However, Ravasi's theme – the Jews as Herod, who killed all the innocent babies because his heart was set on killing Jesus – was much beloved by Medieval organizers of pogroms.

The vicar-general of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, William Shomali, said on Vatican Radio that “what is happening in Gaza now is a vicious circle of violence”. The auxiliary bishop then declared that “it’s difficult to know who started it”. How difficult?

A few weeks ago, in an interview with the Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Shomali claimed that “hatred of Christians” is the Talmud itself. "The Talmud, the holy book studied by the ultra-orthodox, more highly venerated than the Bible itself, invites religious hatred, speaks badly of Jesus, and even worse of Mary and, in general, of Christians,” the bishop said, adding that “in Israeli schools, love for the other is not taught, but rather the destruction of the other”.

Talking to the Vatican News Agency, Michel Sabbah, Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem, said that the Gaza Strip for many years “has been living under the weight of an absurd embargo, which makes the daily lives of a million and a half of people inumane (sic)”.

Sabbah signed the recent appeal by more than one hundred Christian leaders who have asked the international community to support the recognition of the Palestinian State as a full member of the United Nations. Among the signers is the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna, a self professed anti-Semite who blessed the suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.

As yet, no condemnation has come from the Pope of the barrages of rockets fired by terror groups on southern Israeli cities before Operation Pillar of Defense. The Church authorities, and Benedict XVI himself, raised their voices in condemnation of the violence that has broken out in the Gaza Strip only after Israel began bombing the installations of the terrorist movements in that territory. Not a word was heard before that.

During the Cast Lead operation in 2009, the Vatican officials called Gaza "a concentration camp". After the Nazi comparison did its work, the Jesus-killer motif has now returned to the Catholic Church.

____________________________

Christians Must Honor Jews

John R. Houk

© November 27, 2012

______________________

The Vatican on Gaza: Israel is a Baby-Killer”

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

© Arutz Sheva, All Rights Reserved

Support Israel – Blessings Follow

John R. Houk

© November 16, 2010

I believe the Land of Israel is a land that belongs to God’s Chosen People. The Land of Israel is the Land of Promise to the Jews. I know Jews will disagree with this but I believe the Promised Land is a heritage for Christians as those engrafted to the Promises of God through Christ. But unlike Christian Replacement theologians I do not believe the Christian Church replaces the Jews in the Promises of God. I believe Salvation is of the Jews and that Salvation is extended to all the nations of the Earth by the Blood of Christ. When the Apostle Paul uses the phrase to the Jew first then to the Gentile, the meaning is still the Promises of God are for the direct descendants of Abraham first and then are extended to the Spiritual descendants of Abraham through the Blood of Christ.

It is irrelevant about greater or lesser in the Jew or Gentile. That which is relevant is that whoever chases God rather than running from God are blessed in God. I believe the Jews will eventually accept Jesus Christ as their expected Messiah even as Biblical Christians view Christ the Savior as the Messiah of Promise. The ruinous attitude of Christians is the assumption that Jews are reprobates and sinners for rejecting Christ’s Messiahship. NO and again I say NO! The Jews will discover Jesus when His Second Coming delivers the nation Israel from the brink of destruction from Israel’s enemies.

Who are Israel’s enemies?

Israel’s enemies are those that hate Israel and the Jews by desiring their destruction or by intentionally or unintentionally aiding Israel’s enemies. The tragedy is this definition of the enemies of God would include many nations that have a Christian heritage but have abandoned Christianity for Secular Humanism.

Secular Humanism the anti-God movement disguised as an ideology that betters human society without God and with human hands. Beware Europe and America for God’s protection may lapse by supporting Muslim Arabs in the name of National Interests and National Economies rather than supporting God’s people awaiting their Messiah. Beware secular Jews that honor their heritage but dishonor their G-d by adopting Secular Humanist ideology over the expectation for a Messiah.

The times are a changing AND Christ will return to collect His own and perhaps offer one last chance to accept the Lord’s Redemption before the Last Judgment.

Support Israel!

Below are three essays that definitely are not politically correct and are sure to rile Western Leftists and Islamic Supremacists from Think-Israel.

JRH 11/16/10

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AN ALTERNATIVE 2-STATE SOLUTION

By Bernice Sacks Lipkin and Lewis Edward Lipkin; appendix by Richard H. Shulman

September/October 2010

Think-Israel

PROPOSAL

There be established a homeland for the Palestinian Arabs who currently reside in UNRWA-run refugee camps and in the Territories: Samaria, Judea and Gaza.

This entity is to be established on unused land in the Middle East within the holdings given or assigned to the Arabs and endorsed by the League of Nations after the Ottoman Empire was dissolved after World War I.

Palestina could be 10X the size of Israel (including Samaria, Judea and Gaza) and still not make a dent in the Arab land holding. The 22 Arab League states have 42% more land than the 50 United States of America. The Arabs currently have over 99.9% of the Middle East, while Israel has less than 1 tenth of 1 percent (0.1%).

The Arab states would have an opportunity to translate their often-expressed sympathy for their Palestinian brethren into useful action. Palestina would also redress an old injustice — the Arab states created the Arab refugee problem when they urged the Arabs in Israel to flee when they invaded Israel in 1948. These people and their descendants are still in refugee status. The Arab states also created another group of refugees. Almost a million Jews — Jews living in Arab countries — were harassed, deprived of human rights, had their stores, schools and homes ransacked and destroyed, saw hundreds of Jews murdered in riots and pogroms, and were forced to flee their homes and leave their property behind, because of Arab anger at the creation of the State of Israel. But Israel has already solved that problem by absorbing most of these Jewish refugees at its own expense.

PM Netanyahu has asked for 'out of the box thinking', perhaps as a substitute for the 1state-2state controversy that goes nowhere. We believe implementation of this proposal has a realistic chance at bringing peace and stability to the Middle East.

Nature of the Land Region to be assigned to the Palestinians

·       Palestina should be isolated from Arab population centers. PLO behavior in Lebanon and Jordan suggests the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has a tendency to try to take control of host countries.

·       It should not be in Jordan, because that is too close to Israel. With sufficient separation, it would not be as easy to attack Israel by missile or individual acts of terror.

·       The Jews who fled from Arab states left behind property some 4 to 5 times the size of all of Israel. That should compensate the host Arab country in establishing Palestina.

·       For some set period of time, Palestina would receive the funds now expended by E.U., UNRWA and the U.S.A. on the Arab refugees.

·       For the Arabs now living in the Territories and the refugee camps, it would be about as much a culture shock as moving from Worcester to Boston. They would remain in the Arab culture, Muslim religion and Middle East geography; they would enjoy familiar foods and life styles, and speak the same language.

·       Sympathizers will have the opportunity to come to Palestina and help develop the infra-structure for administering a viable state.

·       Palestina will be monitored -- likely by drone planes, satellite imagery and internet traffic statistics -- only to the extent of preventing the training of the native population and foreigners to commit acts of terror outside Palestina. If they continue to prefer thug government and fighting each other by clan/tribe/religious sect, that is their decision. It will be countenanced as long as it remains within the confines of the state of Palestina.

Why Is This a Propitious Time?

American attitudes:

·       In general Americans support Israeli as against Arab claims; this is particularly true of the conservatives, both religious and secular. (The further the individual is to the left, the more anti-Israel he tends to become.) For the next year or two, people who never voted for conservative candidates will do so to show anger towards the current administration's policies.

·       The majority of Congress is sympathetic to Israel. At present, however, the American Congress can't really say anything when Israeli leaders keep pretending that all they want for Chanukah is another Palestinian state neighboring Israel.

·       However, years of unrefuted claims that Israel is occupying Palestinian land have taken their toll. The demands for divestiture and boycotts against Israel grow. The Arabs have captured the support of influential elements of several mainstream churches. Too often, university administrators let their activist Muslim students determine which speakers holding what political ideology will have access to the student body. More people, especially students at college, accept — or at least do not challenge — the Palestinian claims. And Anti-Semitic statements are made more openly, often in the guise of anti-Zionism.

To refute the assertion fueling this hostility — namely, that Israel is occupying Arab land — Israel's ownership of Mandated Palestine must be broadcast loud and clear. Simultaneously, restructuring the Palestinian problem as one of providing the Palestinian Arabs with a viable space — not a particular space — would change the dynamics.

Israel's Internal Enemies Are Losing Power:

·       A few years ago, the authority and opinions of pro-Palestinian NGOs including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and strong anti-Israel groups like Peace Now were unquestioned. That is no longer true. Their own conduct is now under examination. Simultaneously, there are more pro-Israel blogs that disseminate the facts and correct misleading and false statements made by pro-Palestinian groups.

·       Israeli Marxist leftists have been exposed as undemocratic; their highly selective definition of freedom of speech is under attack. And Israel is finally introducing patriotism into its school system. Israelis aren't as easy to persuade to give up land as they used to be, especially after the Gaza expulsion debacle.

Middle East (ME) politics and current crises:

Considering the political events in the Middle East and the growing strength of the enemy, Israel can no longer rely on temporizing measures, or waste her time and resources on inadequate measures to keep the enemy at bay. Nor should she be flirting with suicidal actions such as considering creating an enemy state in her tiny space.

The major and growing problems in the Middle East are:

1.   increasing instability in an already volatile region. This is accentuated by the increased brazenness of Hamas (founded by the Muslim Brotherhood) and Hezbollah (founded and funded by Iran).

2.   Iran's outspoken intent to destroy Israel by weapons of mass destruction.

These problems are exacerbated by "random" terrorist acts such as those committed by the West Bank Palestinian Arabs. These add perturbations to a situation that could easily go ballistic. It would reduce the problem of how to handle ME instability to take the Palestinians out of the equation.

Other considerations:

Turkey has joined Iran — and/or is challenging Iran for Number 1 Position of Power in the Middle East.

It is likely the Arab States all still want to kill off Israel. But that's a long-term project. And Saudi Arabia inter alia has more immediate concerns. Right now Iran and Saudi Arabia (S.A.) are at (proxy) war. S.A. needs Israel's help as much as Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) do. Moreover, S.A., which has lavishly sponsored religion-inspired terrorism abroad, is now confronting the fact that the terrorist movement it helped create has turned its deadly operations on Saudi Arabia itself. Gilles Kepel put it, "the interaction [between MB ideas and Wahhabi teachings] ... lead to the rise of a new, internationalist form of Salafism, which is...in important ways, the dominant cultural force in the Arab ME."

President Mubarak of Egypt is old and in poor health. When he dies, the Muslim Brotherhood (which was founded in Egypt almost a century ago) will be under less restraint in exerting its influence. It is popular, well-organized and its members currently hold 19% (88/454) Assembly (lower house of the Parliament) seats. It plans to fight for the 30% at-risk parliamentary seats in the next election scheduled for late 2010. Its ex-UN opponent/ally, Mohamed El Baradei, has a weaker tactic: he calls for boycotting the election.

The Egyptian MB also has some affiliation with Iran's rulers and they have influenced each other in shaping their religion-based ideological and political views, though, practically speaking, their major intersection is their mutual involvement with Hamas. And the MB is a growing threat to the "moderate" Arab countries. Jordan's King Abdullah, though protected by Israel, has no compunction about trashing Israel whenever possible. He is, however, deferential toward the MB and recently conferred honors on two of their leaders. This suggests he respects — and fears — the MB, not Israel.

Increasing its dominance in the Middle East will enhance the Brotherhood's sophisticated programs around the world, which are directed at demonizing Jews and substituting Sharia law for local laws and regulations. It has said its goal was jihad to destroy the USA. The MB has extensive financial and political resources, and is constantly developing and supporting new groups and techniques for spreading Islam (See here.) They have infiltrated the educational system and the media in the West; and they are expanding the construction and control of mosques everywhere. They do not hesitate to do whatever they think is necessary, legal or illegal. Allowing the MB to increase its power in the ME would have direct repercussions on the West.

P.A. and Hamas leaders continue to bluster that they will not be satisfied with anything less than returning to their old homes in Israel. But In the fall of 2010, Andrew Whitley, the New York director of UNRWA, put out what may be a trial balloon. He said that Palestinian refugees "must discard illusions they will return one day to their homes;" Arab countries must resettle them. He said Palestinian refugees needed to start "debating their own role in the societies where they are rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless." When the involved groups protested, he recanted. Nevertheless, he had voiced openly what diplomats and Arab leaders have long known: Israel isn't going to allow itself to be flooded by Palestinian refugees.

Why Not An Arab State Neighboring Israel?

An Arab state can not be developed in, around, from, through or next to Israel because

·       There isn't room for two viable states in that confined space, particularly when the Arabs are determined to destroy the Jewish state.

·       Israel has title to all of Mandated Palestine — Israel, Samaria, Judea, Golan and Gaza. By the Bible. By maintaining residence through thick and thin. By history. By devotion and the ability to make the land become alive again. By an irrevocable trust authorized by international law (Start with this, this, this and this). And by right of conquest after surviving multiple Arab invasions.

·       Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank) are Biblical Israel. They are the soil in which Judaism developed. A proud people does not throw away its inheritance. Were Israel to become a rootless nation and allow the Arabs to control its holy sites, its people would lose what made them a people. The State would lose its purpose: the redemption of the Land of Israel. And the sympathy of its millions of Christian friends and many of its strongest Jewish supporters in the West would be lost.

·       Israel can not allow another state to control its mountain aquifer in Samaria-Judea; especially when the Arabs — despite all the money and technology available to them from foreign benefactors — mucked up the Gaza portion of the coastal aquifer, under their control since 1995, by overpumping, digging illegal wells and ignoring raw sewage pollution. Importing water has become impractical, especially now that Turkey has become unfriendly. Reverse osmosis desalination has relieved some of the water problem and is the method of choice for brackish water. But its capital costs are high, it doesn't completely remove all the contaminants, it impacts the environment and it has problems disposing of the extracted material. Moreover, northern desalination plants can be crippled by sewage dumped into the Mediterranian from Gaza polluting the intake water; and all plants are susceptible to terrorist attack. Israel can not operate a comprehensive solution including conservation and recycling with the Arabs attacking some of the sites and digging illegal wells.

·       Gaza is already host to various terror gangs. It is a certainty that if Israel gives up Samaria and Judea, Hamas will soon control the area, making it easier for Hamas and Hezbollah and the splinter groups to coordinate their ongoing war against Israel and link to like-minded groups in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

·       The once small cottage industry where Palestinian Arabs manufactured small explosives and smuggled in small missiles has evolved. Currently, rockets and missiles in the Territories can reach everywhere in Israel, including air traffic coming into the Ben-Gurion airport. Given their current rocket range, aside from reducing Israel's tourist industry dramatically because people will be afraid to come to Israel, the downing of a plane is a certainty waiting to happen. More generally, with less land in which to create a safety margin, Israel's ability to safeguard her population becomes near impossible. Maj-Genl (res.) Giora Eiland has pointed out that a shift in the borders that Israel controls would (1) give the enemy the 'lines of visibility' that would enable their weaponry to cover Israel's roads and strategic positions; and (2) block Israel's ability to deploy its anti-missile defense systems, which need more distance than the 9-miles width of the 1949 cease-fire lines.(See here.)

·       The weaker Israel becomes, the greater will be the sequential pressure to surrender additional pieces of Israel: Syria will claim the Golan; the Arab farmers in the Jordan valley, already favored by the police and the judiciary in disputes with the Jewish farmers, will demand autonomy or absorption by the Palestinian state; and the Beduin, who have not been restricted from illegally building in the Negev, will effectively control the Negev, not matter what the political structure is called.

·       Israel cannot rely on third party promises of safeguarding Israel. The U.N. has been consistently hostile; its Goldstonian anti-Israeli decisions have become a caricature of truth and justice, but because these decrees are from the U.N., they are taken seriously. The E.U. has expended emotional and financial capital in improving the lives of the Palestinians. The Europeans are unlikely to give up their benevolent self-image, no matter what the facts. Americans genuinely like Israel, but that doesn't guarantee that a particular Administration, Democratic or Republican, will help Israel in a crisis. It speak volumes about the attitude of the current administration that reports that the USA will lease land from the Palestinians for Israel are credible.(See here). The wars the U.S.A. has fought in the Middle East have been to protect Arabs.

Won't the media and "the world" react violently?

Of course. Don't they always? About everything. About anything.

PR can not be an after thought. It can not be delayed. It must be integrated with implementation. It must be sustained. It must be repeated over and over and over again. In straightforward language.

PR will be simplified

·       when Israel finally starts rebutting Arab claims that they own the Land of Israel and when Israeli spokesmen stop shilling for a Palestinian state along side Israel. Most of the Arabs in Israel themselves are legal/illegal immigrants or are the descendants of Arabs who came into Israel after 1900 for economic reasons. Altogether, the majority of the Palestinians in Israel and in the Territories are descendants of illegal/legal immigrants, not natives.

·       when Israel and its spokesmen in the West start and continue to point out that Israel, through no desire of its own, finds itself in the front lines fighting a war that Radical Islam is waging against the West.

·       when the case is made that Israel is passionate about its land and will not give up an inch of it. Offering to share arouses suspicion that the land does not really belong to Israel. Offering to share provides an irresistible opportunity for everyone to voice an opinion on whether Israel is a legitimate state or not.

·       when the transfer to Palestina is presented as the second stage of population exchange. The first stage occurred when Jews were forced to flee from the Arab countries and most came to the new state of Israel. Click here for "The Case for Population Exchange" of the Jewish and Arab populations in context of the history of population exchange.)

·       when people are presented with a clear set of alternatives: supporting Israel which, in a few short years, has significantly contributed to medicine, science and technology to benefit humanity OR, alternatively, destroying Israel for the sake of an ersatz people (see here, here and here for starters), whose major contribution to civilization is the development of techniques for beheading, dismembering, and multilating human beings.

Dealing with Hamas as well as the P.A.

How can this peace plan handle Hamas and the P.A., Hamas versus the P.A., Hamas instead of the P.A., and the possible installation of a strict Muslim terror government to replace a secular Muslim terror government?

When negotiators smoke the peace pipe in Washington, they tend to ignore the reality that half the Arab population in the Territories live under Hamas rule, where emerging terrorist gangs are welcome but Christian Arabs and Fatah supporters are under attack. To cut a runnel between Gaza and Samaria-Judea would create easy passage for Hamas to access Jewish targets in Israel and P.A. targets in Samaria-Judea. It would also encourage the Hamas and the P.A. to wage internecine war or to unite and wage war against Israel — or to do both. To leave the areas separated means essentially to create two Arab states, both determined to destroy Israel, one by terror and violence, the other more subtly by propaganda and using third party support, while nibbling away at Israeli land. Meantime, Abbas's term of office expired in 2009.

Can you expect cooperation from Hamas and P.A. in making a move to Palestina?

It is possible that Hamas will see the advantage of moving and Fatah will not. But Fatah is less capable of independent action, because it is totally dependent on the U.S.A and Israel. Suppose Hamas, being more independent and less reliant on Western handouts, refuses to leave Gaza. Given that the majority of the Palestinian Arabs from the camps and Territories are sequestered in Palestina, the problem reduces to how to defang Hamas. Israel won't be in the ambivalent position of fighting Hamas while trying to make friends with it.

Can you put Hamas and P.A. in same place, in Palestina, and expect them to cooperate?

Perhaps not. But we will not have an investment in teaching them democracy or trying to control their political future. If Hamas transfers peacefully to Palestina, we can live with Hamas winning by ballot box, if that's what the Palestinians want as their leaders. It will affect no one but themselves.

It won't be just a question of what Hamas, Fatah and the Territory Arabs will do. They will be joined by the large population of refugee Arabs, some of whom may have ideas of their own.

If the Arab States have vowed to destroy Israel, why would they agree to transfer out the Palestinian Arabs?

First, the Palestinians are beginning to make the Arab countries uneasy. They have been more successful at fighting Israel than the Arab countries and might become successful at overthrowing Arab states, as their model, Hizbullah, is doing in Lebanon. They are getting better all the time: Hamas is acquiring sophisticated weapons and Fatah is being trained by the Americans. Both are affiliated with regimes not sympathetic to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States — the major oil producers. Hamas, which is popular with the Palestinians, is a creation and creature of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is working to take over Egypt and has its eye on Jordan. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was midwife to Hezbollah. Hezbollah has taken over Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah are — at the least — loosely affiliated. Sequestering the Palestinians with a wide separation from Arab population centers will make a dent in their ability to do mischief. They won't be able to walk over to bomb a neighbor — at least not a non-Palestinian neighbor — or drive a short distance to shoot a sleeping mother and her children.

It is assumed that some Palestinians now living in Arab countries will continue living there as individuals, not as wards of the U.N. Potential Palestinian sedition is an important consideration. We still have vivid images of the delight on the faces of the Palestinians who had been living in Kuwait for many years when Saddam Hussein's invaded Kuwait. People who saw pictures of the Arabs dancing in the streets of Patterson, New Jersey, and celebrating in Gaza when the Twin Towers were destroyed are not sanguine about taking a Palestinian's patriotism on faith. It can be written into the establishment of Palestina that Palestinians that attempt civil insurrection in the Arab countries in which they currently reside will be deported to Palestina. Israel will also be able to deport seditious Israeli Arabs to Palestina, without involving the other Arab countries.

Second, Israel provides the military support that keeps King Abdullah of Jordan on his throne and keeps Hamas from taking the West Bank and removing President Abbas and Fatah from power. Yet both Abdullah and Abbas speak derogatorily about Israel. Israel's elder peace partner, Mubarek of Egypt, acts like a member of the Palestinian negotiation team — the one that warns that the sky will fall if Israel doesn't immediately capitulate.

Israel is the only ME country capable of stopping Iran from becoming Numero Uno in the Middle East and imposing its brand of Islam on the region. And the Arab countries know it, particularly Saudi Arabia, which is currently at war with Iran in Yemen.

It is time that Israel changed the rules: no tickee, no washee. King Abdullah and Mubarek need to read from a different script and start sounding respectful of Israel. Saudi Arabia has the power to "persuade" key member states of the U.N. With this new script, the Arab states won't like Israel any better, but they'll respect it.
 

Transferring out the Palestinians could be seen as doing it for their own safety, because Iran is threatening to nuke Israel.

The Palestinian leaders should have no problem in seeing advantages to a move, particularly if Israel annexes Gaza, Samaria and Judea, as it is entitled to do. The new state is an upscale move to better living quarters and expanded opportunities. Contrary to the fables their media weave, the "Palestinians" do not have ancient roots in the Territories. And they are guaranteed a steady income for some time to come.

There will be no squabble about borders and settlements, because Israel annexes the Territories, which belong to Israel.

Conclusion

It is the tenor of our times that presumably moral people are silent when the Palestinians slaughter Jews. They are however highly distressed if a Palestinian is detained at a check-point. They do not see the appalling immorality in equating inconveniencing Arabs with murdering Jews. The self-declared friends of the Palestinians allege, contrary to fact, that Israel is apartheid. It does not bother them that the Arab countries do not allow Jews to vote or to buy land or to build synagogues. Technically, the Arab states can not be accused of apartheid because, except for the remnants of ancient Jewish communities (many of whom predate the arrival of the Arab invaders), they don't have Jews in their states. They don't have Jews because they won't allow Jews to live in their states. In fact, the P.A. and Hamas subject Arabs who sell land to Jews in the Territories to capital punishment.

We are proposing moving an unsettled, unstable group of people to a home that they can make their own. We recognize that transferring a population is a charged term. It lends itself to connotations of racism and to depriving people of their civil rights, and to charges that it is a class action that injures members of the class that might be innocent. No matter how attractive the proposed new home, some people will insist that the Palestinians -- unlike all other refugees -- must be returned to a land that they claim but have never owned. Never.

There are, however, other considerations. And these are based in reality. We must consider that the Palestinian Arabs have vowed to destroy Israel. They don't just talk. Israelis have suffered severely from continued Palestinian terrorism. Israel has tried hard for peace. The more they sacrificed for peace, the more warlike the Palestinians became. Israel is entitled to take actions that will prevent sabotage, sedition and terrorism. One precedent is that after we won our independence from England, those who had remained loyal to Britain were considered traitors. Given the mood of the country, the loyalists saw it was pointless to demand restitution and restoration of their properties; they left and went North. Another precedent is after WWII, when Czechoslovakia (Sudentenland), Romania, Hungary and Poland expelled millions of resident Germans, after some of these Germans had proven to be a fifth column, who helped the Nazis. The expulsion also reduced the possibility of Germany again claiming territory as the Nazis did on behalf of the Sudenten Germans. (See statistics.)
 

Considering the current crises in the Middle East, arguing about the fairness or justice of transfering populations is meaningless.

There is a continuous constriction of Israel's options as her enemies come ever closer to encircling her militarily and weakening her diplomatically.

In the near future, one way or the other, there will be a transfer of population. Either there will be a mass movement out of Samaria-Judea and Gaza of Arabs or there will be a mass movement out of Samaria-Judea of Jews.

The two processes are not similar. In the first case, it is a part of moving large groups of Arabs living in different parts of the Middle East in coordinated maneuvers to a new land with a large number of U.N. and E.U. agencies doting on them, eager to set them up in a style befitting the new Palestina people in the new land of Palestina. They're moving up. They are bettering their condition.

The process of moving a quarter to half million Jews out of the land where Judaism was born will not be upbeat. It will be a horror show. It will be the Gaza expulsion of 1995 multiplied many times over, with one major difference: this time, the Jews are unlikely to engage in passive physical resistance. Consider also that successive Israeli governments and their bureaucracies have not been capable of dealing competently with the aftermath of the expulsion of some ten thousand Jews. Most of the Gazan Jews have still not been permanently settled. Where once they contributed to the gross national product, now, through no fault of their own, they are a drain on the Treasury. Imagine a quarter of a million to half million more Jews made homeless and jobless, a drain on Israel's financial resources. The only funds will have to come from Israel's coffers. The U.N. will not help. America is in no position to spend money. And it unlikely that pious Jews in the Diaspora or Pro-Israel Christians will help Israel commit suicide by leaving Biblical Israel. The expulsion will bust the bank. It will also excite the incoming Arabs to attack a demoralized and shattered people.

Some of you reading this are thinking this is an exaggeration — there's been rumours and fantasies masquerading as information that Abbas will graciously let some settlements remain, and so some Jews will stay. Actually, he has insisted he will allow no Israelis -- Jews or Muslims -- to settle in his state; and his vision of a Palestinian state includes all of Israel. Even if some Jews were to remain, consider the cost of guarding them. Recall, a major reason for clearing out of Gaza was the cost of maintaining IDF forces in the Jewish areas, when the size to be guarded was 10,000 people in a circumscribed area. In Samaria and Judea, the patches of Jewish settlements are not contiguous. They will be isolated and scattered, and the population much, much larger. A nightmare to guard. A focal point for arab terrorism. A guarantee of constant battle that drains resources and is a distraction from concentrating on the hostility coming from Iran-sponsored terror troops.

The proposal in this document is a plan for a 2-state solution that has a real chance of working.

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APPENDIX: WHAT ISRAEL NEEDS TO DO

By Richard H. Shulman

A. CHANGE JEWISH ATTITUDES

Before Israel can adopt and implement a plan for dealing with its Arab enemies, it must get its own mental house in order. That means general unity. Israeli unity once seemed impossible. The decades of failed appeasement, the thousands of Muslim Arab murders of Jews that it produced, and the extreme unfairness of the outside world have strengthened Israeli public opinion against the leftist advocates of appeasement.

1. Jews should revise their mental outlook

Normal people uphold their interests reasonably. To what degree is a matter of opinion. Israeli appeasement of the Arabs and of the U.S. demands of it have been extreme. This attitude has risked national security and survival. It enabled thousands of murders of Israelis. That is not normal. Nor is it normal when people accuse Israelis who would defend themselves and their national interest of being extremist.

Jewish people are too other-directed. Centuries of powerlessness and oppression have imbued them with a craving for gentile approval. Whereas every nation acting in its own interests tries to present its actions as decent, the Jewish people tries to present itself as decent by acting against its own interests, by not being decent to themselves.

Appeasement fails. Anti-Semites cannot be placated, because they hate Jews for being Jews. The reasons they cite for hostility are rationalizations. Jews address the rationalizations, but facts from Jews cannot persuade people afflicted with the psychosis of anti-Semitism or with indoctrination in religious jihad. Likewise, the stubbornness of State Dept. anti-Zionism over the generations has proved impervious to the American need for Israeli support against first the Soviets and now the jihadists. Moreover, a Saudi prince once boasted that the prospect of lush, post-retirement consultancies with Saudi Arabia keeps State Dept. diplomats still employed by the U.S. in line with Saudi policy.

Jews act against their own interests in many ways. One example will have to suffice. Consider checkpoints. Israel has set up checkpoints to block terrorist access to Jewish communities. The U.S. demands that Israel remove the checkpoints. To please the State Dept., Israel removes many of them. Terrorists then get through and murder Jews. Israel often had to restore the checkpoints. The U.S. renews its demands. Israel complies. More Jews murdered. Israel did not act in its own interests. Israeli officials must have forgotten the Talmudic advice that if they act mercifully towards the unmerciful (terrorists), there will be no mercy for the merciful (Israelis).

Israeli officials also seem to have forgotten to study Arab culture. The officials believe that if Israelis are nice to the Arabs, the Arabs will be nice to them. Unfortunately, the Israelis confuse being nice with being obsequious. When Israel makes concessions to the Arabs, Arab culture interprets this behavior as weakness. And isn't it? The Arabs then become contemptuous and demand more.

An example is Israel having given the Muslim Waqf the keys to the Temple Mount. The Waqf abuses its custodianship by preventing Jews from praying on the Mount, by illegal construction that gradually usurps the whole Mount, and by destroying ancient Jewish artifacts as they excavate. They threaten to riot against Jews who ascend the Mount or even pray at the Wall below it. The Israeli police acquiesce, contrary to court orders. In the face of that Israeli demonstration of weakness, the Arabs riot anyway, egged on by the supposedly peaceful Palestinian Authority. Thus the pot of war keeps boiling!

2. Israeli reforms, prerequisite for asserting Jewish rights

Although the Israeli people have rediscovered the justification and value of Jewish nationalism, the Left remains sufficiently powerful there to block most nationalist reform. Therefore, Israel needs democratic reforms of the abuses described below, as well as the previously mentioned change in its emotional attitude, before it could set up our proposed steps in dealing with the Arabs.

a.The High Court is a self-perpetuating, far-Left clique that has usurped power unrestricted by U.S.-style separation of powers. It overturns law in favor of its members' personal preferences, however unjust, in behalf of the Arabs. The Court does not follow the rule of law. Lower Court justices often follow its line, in order to be considered for promotion.

The Court's justices should be nominated by the Prime Minister and ratified by Knesset. Politics would intrude, but it would be more democratic.

b. Let the Knesset limit judicial power to overturn legislation! We recommend that the new Court welcome Jewish Law as precedent. The leftist majority ignores Jewish Law.

c. Israel has proportional representation. That system sounds democratic but is the opposite. In combination with a low minimum vote for Knesset representation, it gives disproportionate power to minority parties to extort from the majority. Worse, it aligns parties with party bosses who place favorites higher in the slate of candidates for Knesset.

To better reflect the will of the people, Israel needs Knesset districts. Although not perfect, this would be a great improvement.

d. The Attorney-General has usurped power much as has the Supreme Court. A balance should be restored.

e. The media is controlled largely by leftists. The government should grant radio broadcasting rights to nationalist groups, not solely to leftist groups.

f. Israeli lower education mostly has ignored Zionism and Jewish history. It sometimes even teaches the Arab doctrine that the formation of Israel was a tragedy for the Arabs and based on evil. It does not monitor the seditionist textbooks used in Arab-language schools. That may be changing now, but not enough.

g. Israeli higher education in social studies is dominated by leftists. They hire poorly qualified fellow leftists, who abuse their positions to indoctrinate students in anti-Israeli theory and to repress dissent. Propaganda is not education.

h. Israeli police do practice brutality, but against Jews. Israel is partly a police state, with pre-emptive detention of Jews, beating of lawful and peaceable demonstrators, lengthy detention without trial, false accusations, framing of dissidents (as revised verdicts proved), etc.

Past regimes instituted special harassment of Jews in Judea-Samaria and Gaza. Altercations between Arabs and Jews there usually arise from Arab stone-throwing or attempts to destroy Jews' crops or rustle livestock or usurp fields. The government arrests Jews on the word of Arabs whose testimony is patently false, and rejects the word of Jews. Without checking, police take the word of Arabs on whose land is involved. (This discrimination may be because Israeli governments usually strive to exchange land for the broken and still unreliable Arab promise of peace. Jewish residents are in the way of that striving.) We acknowledge that in reaction to Israeli government failure to protect Jews in the Territories, a small number of Jews there have been taking revenge on Arab property.

i. Foreign governments and NGOs have been subsidizing Israeli Arab and fringe leftist organizations to engage in subversive projects up to and including expressing bigotry against Jews and calling for the destruction of Israel.

Israel has begun reacting. A proposed bill would require such subsidies to be declared. In such a small country struggling for survival, the threat of those subsidies to national security may outweigh the problems of censorship in banning such subsidies. Just as boots on the ground invade, so, too, in a sense, do hostile masses of immigrants and subversive subsidies invade. A country has a right to resist any type of invasion.

In the related matter of illegal foreign subsidy of Israeli elections, two Israeli Prime Ministers, Barak and Sharon, were involved, but only underlings were convicted. Since national independence is at stake, judicial crackdown should be sweeping and severe.

j. Many foreign countries, being pro-Arab, oppose most Israeli measures of self-defense. We propose more such measures. If adopted, more foreign countries or companies are likely to boycott Israel. Therefore, Israel must strengthen its economy to withstand the anticipated pressure.

Two ways of strengthening the economy, some of which were started by Benjamin Netanyahu when Finance Minister, are to eliminate unnecessary government regulation and spending.

B. STOP ASSISTING THE ARABS TO ENTRENCH THEMSELVES

1. Israel collects and remits Palestinian Authority (P.A.) excise tax revenues. Why help finance a government that endorses terrorism and threatens war?

2. Israel sometimes arms P.A. forces, and P.A. forces sometimes open fire on Israelis. This treachery is predicted and repeated. Crazy, isn't it, to continue arming the P.A.?

3. Israel allows foreign governments to train P.A. forces in counter-terrorism and in infantry operations. But the P.A. is terrorist and threatens to attack Israel. It can use its training to counter Israeli counter-terrorism. When PM Rabin told the P.A. the names of Israel's Arab agents in the P.A., the P.A. hunted them down. What does that tell you?

4. As mentioned before, PM Netanyahu risks Israeli security by removing checkpoints, in order to facilitate the P.A. economy.

5. For college admission and scholarships and for certain government jobs, Israel discriminates against Jews and in favor of Arabs.

6. Most Arabs living in Jerusalem are not citizens. Israel grants them welfare benefits and permits to travel in Israel. If they move away for some years, they are supposed to forfeit their Jerusalem residency permits, but protest embarrassed Israel into not rescinding the permits. Israel must learn to stand up to, and parry, attempts to embarrass it.

7. The central government of Israel encourages municipal profligacy by covering municipal over-spending. Arab towns are known to forfeit tax collection from their residents, and then bill the central government for the difference between expense and income.

8. Israel has not fully reformed the law permitting Arabs from the Territories to marry Israeli Arabs, sometimes sincerely but sometimes as pretext for gaining residency. This increases Israel's Arab population and pressure against survival of the Jewish state.

C. ENFORCE THE LAW AGAINST ARAB VIOLATORS

1. Israel prides itself on being a country of law, but as mentioned earlier, Arabs threaten riots unless they get their way, which they often get. Israel should face down Arab riots despite ensuing criticism from the hostile European press. A few years ago, Israeli Arabs attacked Jews and started crowding in on a few policemen. To save themselves, the police opened fire. Under great and indignant protest domestically and from abroad, Israel condemned the police. How much law enforcement against Arab violators can one expect from police now?

2. Israeli tax collectors fear entering Arab towns. They need protection. Arabs should pay their fair share.

3. Arabs in Israel and in the Israeli-administered territories have usurped thousands of acres of public and private land. On that land and on some land that they actually own, they have built tens of thousands of houses without building permits. Israel has been discouraged by foreign critics from enforcing the law.

By contrast, domestic and foreign anti-Zionists encourage the government to demolish the small number of Jewish houses they call illegal, but which are not. They are built within authorized municipal boundaries and with authorization for almost all of the many, bureaucratic stages of official approval. (Note that we are not referring to outposts -- a fancy name for most often are a couple of trailers -- usually built without permits. But why are they denied permits when built within municipal bounds?) Most are, up to the last stage, approved by the Defense Minister. Defense Minister Barak heads the Labor Party that opposes Jewish retention of the Territories. For that political reason, he withholds approval and demolishes houses. Arbitrary abuse of power! Such discretion should be modified to prevent demolition orders for politics and without cause.

4. Ban the Israeli Islamic Movement, which organizes Arabs in support of terrorism, though it may not engage in it much.

5. Remove radical imams, who, under cover of religion, incite to war in Israeli mosques.

D. EXPAND NATIONAL SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

Israel offers some religious Jews a national service alternative to military draft. The national service draft should be extended only to the Arab sector, presently exempt from the draft. This would test Arab loyalty to their country. It also would entitle them to veterans' benefits and the resulting higher ranking on job applications.

The IDF set up a few ultra-Orthodox units to meet their religious requirements. As the Jewish population becomes increasingly Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, the Army needs its full participation. So does the economy.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been stretching the limits of student exemption, to a great extent because the military generally is hostile-secularist with an atmosphere of too much sexual libertinism for those Jews. Let the IDF make military service comfortable for ultra-Orthodox and then expect them to enlist.

Ending subsidy and discrimination in favor of the Arabs, enforcing the law against their wholesale seizure of land, illegal building, tax evasion, and rioting, and extending national service requirements to the Arabs would prompt many to emigrate. This is the opposite of PM Netanyahu's policy of building up the P.A. economy, which has helped raise that economy without lowering P.A. bigotry and pro-terrorist sentiment.

If Israel ends its appeasement, and if it pursues the Jewish national interest, and if the Muslim Arabs become less of a "critical mass," the Arabs might lose hope of taking over an Israel that they now perceive as weak. They certainly would pose less of a danger. The fewer their numbers, the less likely is war.

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Support Israel – Blessings Follow

John R. Houk

© November 16, 2010

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AN ALTERNATIVE 2-STATE SOLUTION

Bernice Lipkin (editor@think-israel.org) and Lewis Lipkin (l.lipkin@comcast.net) are editors at www.Think-Israel.org.

The Appendix was written by Richard H. Shulman, who comments on current events of importance both to the U.S.A. and Israel. The Appendix is a section from Shulman, "A New Plan For Resolving The Arab-Israel Conflict", which is available here.

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The first Think-Israel essay was a bit longer than I anticipated. The other two essay I have in mind are important so I will break this into parts.